The new Netflix crime show Bodies began by showing us the investigations of four identical bodies showing up in four separate time periods (1890, 1941, 2023 and 2053), and slowly, the links between the four times have been growing clearer. But as we enter the second half of the season, the ties are explained in full.
This happens in Bodies episode 5, and in this recap of the episode we'll walk you through everything that happens in the hour-long entry into the tale. We hope you're up to date with the previous episodes, because a lot happens here that won't make sense on their own!
In our Bodies episode 5 recap we'll walk you through each character's story in chronological order, so you're not jumping between time periods as the show itself does. Our Bodies cast guide will catch you up on who's who too.
So let's dive into "We Are One Another's Ghosts", the fifth episode of Bodies.
Hillinghead gets blackmailed in 1890
Our love-torn Victoria copper Alfred Hillinghead (Kyle Soller) shows his boss the fingerprints found on the crime scene, and the fingerprints found on his glasses from Julian Harker. They match. Despite his boss' warnings, Harker (Stephen Graham) is called into the station for an interview.
Harker readily admits that he was at the crime scene, and after dismissing the police chief, promises to tell Hillinghead "the whole truth". He tells the detective that he was at the crime scene waiting for a miracle, although he didn't kill the body and doesn't know who did.
However Harker then shows Hillinghead the photos taken at the seance (episode 3) after the drugging, which show the detective in compromising poses with the dead body. The banker tells the cop to frame his lover and journalist friend Henry Ashe as the murderer, or he'll send it to Hillinghead's family and ruin his life.
Whiteman finally does some detecting in 1941
Our World War Two detective Charles Whiteman (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd) goes to his synagogue and gets a pep talk from his rabbi. Then he goes into the police station, and asks his boss to help him. The man ties up Whiteman's wound, and they work out that there's another mole in the station beyond Whiteman.
The police boss tells the team that they're re-opening the trunk-body case, and Whiteman goes to the station's phone operator room to listen into the phone calls. Eventually, they hear one from the mysterious woman whom Whiteman took jobs from, and it's going to Kathleen, Whiteman's receptionist paramour.
Kathleen is arrested, and tells Whiteman that she doesn't know who the voice is, only that the calls come from the bank "Harker and Co.". There's that name again!
Whiteman and his boss go to the bank, where they find the woman on the phone: it's Polly Hillinghead who, if you'll remember, just killed Whiteman's surrogate daughter in episode 4. Whiteman knocks out his boss and kidnaps Polly, taking her to his synagogue.
After interrogating Polly for the truth, Whiteman finally gets a confession from her, which his boss, lurking in the shadows hears. The boss arrests Polly and also Whiteman (for his cover-up), when the police chief shows up. The man shoots the boss, knocks out Whiteman and refers to Polly as "mother".
Hasan makes some family connections in 2023
The modern-day detective Shahara Hasan (Amaka Okafor), who's doing more actual investigating than our three other main characters combined, is let out of captivity in Harker house by her boss Danny Barber (Michael Jibson) who's looking for her. Unfortunately, all the evidence from the house has been removed.
Barber tells Hasan that the investigation has gone on too far, and he's going to stop helping her. However her friend in the force calls her, to tell her that the prints Hillinghead took in 1890 are an exact match... for Elias Mannix?
Hasan visits child Mannix (Gabriel Howell) in prison, and asks him about Julian Harker. We find out that Harker died in 1941 at age 99 when a policeman shot him at home. If only we knew any policemen in 1941...
We also find out about Mannix's mother, Sarah, whom Hasan begins to look for. Eventually, she finds her and visits her, and they discuss how she had the baby and also who the father is.
Apparently, the father is someone called Danny, who was the great-grandson of "a dead banker". Hasan quickly works out that this was Julian Harker. However Sarah tells the detective that Danny didn't take the Harker name — no, he took his mother's name of 'Barber'. Hasan realizes she's been had.
Mannix is due to be transferred that day, but unfortunately, he disppears after being checked out by Barber, who we now know is his father. Hasan goes to Barber's flat and finds a key addressed to her, as well as a vinyl record. She plays it and gets a message from older Elias Mannix (Stephen Graham), recorded in his bed in 1941, which ends with "we'll meet again".
The danger of time travel in 2053
After being kidnapped at the end of the last episode, Iris Maplewood (Shira Haas) is told by Gabriel Defoe (Tom Mothersdale) that he actually is in the Chapel Perilous terror organization. They take her to the organization where she meets its leader...
... who is Shahara Hasan, looking a lot older. Hasan tells Maplewood the plot of the TV show thus far, that she's the fourth detective to find the body.
We also find out that Elias Mannix is the one who detonated the bomb 30 years ago that we've been hearing so much about, in order to create the current utopian society. The man is planning to use time travel to return to 1890, where he'll live as Julian Harker and set up the cult that will eventually prepare the younger version of him to set off the bomb. According to the best minds at What to Watch, this basically makes sense.
Where this doesn't make sense, is that Chapel Perilous plans to stop the man from doing this, due to the bomb killing thousands. They show Maplewood the time travel portal they discovered which Mannix plans to use to travel back in time.
After this Maplewood makes the very valid point that this is a time travel paradox (the fact that they're in this situation proves that Chapel Perilous will fail. Plus, if they somehow succeed in their goal, they will cease to exist). Defoe and Hasan have no good answer, and the latter simply states that she wants to get her son back — presumably the boy will die by the end of the series.
Maplewood has a trick up her sleeve though, and she somehow summons Elias Mannix and his soldiers who break into Chapel Perilous' base and kill lots of scientists (Hasan and Defoe escape). Mannix finds his way to the portal, ready enact his plan.
